Snowshoes are developed to increase the carrying capacity to a person moving at surfaces with reduced strength, usually snow. Snowshoes may also be used in sand. Snowshoes are attached under the user's feet and constitutes a structure with higher basal area than the foot, both in the lateral- and lengthwise direction. In the moving direction the snowshoe extends beyond the foot both in the front and at the rear to form a balanced weight distribution during walking. Presently existing snowshoes are generally compounded of 3 main elements; support area structure, articulating link, and binding. The support area structure often consists of a cloth spanned over a frame.
An example of such a snowshoe is the snowshoe called Tubbs Mountaineer. Tubbs has a U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,666 “Molded snowshoe” wherein the support area structure and the binding are connected by a single axial cylinder link.
Mono constructions render possible production methods such as injection moulded, and compression moulded snowshoes, possibly of materials as polymer and composite. This reduces the number of components and increase the robustness. Most of the presently existing snowshoes pivot about one single axis mechanically bounded to the support area structure of the snowshoe. Such a rotation axis allows, besides an possible slack within the binding, limited adaptation for irregularities and inclinations of the terrain. A simple athwart directed axis of rotation linked to a larger support area structure increases the strain on the user's foot, especially to the ankle joint and/or the knees, by increased lateral torque. A loose connection between the foot and the support area structure provides little control of the placement of the snowshoe relative to the foot. Variants also exist provided with elastic bands attached to the snowshoes support area structure as well as an alternative to shafts and combinations of such. Previously suggested are multi-axial links for snowshoes constituted by elastic bands replacing the mono-axial, otherwise stiff link. An example is the patent US 2008/0141564 A1 Matthews et al., which have a single axial rotational link combined with elastics bands to the right and the left end out to the frame to allow multi axial movement.
A considerable disadvantage of the existing snowshoes is that they consist of a high number of components. The components are of various size and material composition. A high number of components of variable robustness means that the reliability to the complete snowshoe is reduced, in that a snowshoe with one single failing detail may lead to the snowshoe in practice becomes more or less useless, and in that the user becomes stuck in the snow or forced to considerably slow down. For a hunter, rescue personnel or a soldier this may have vital negative consequences. A high amount of components means that unnecessary material is used only for joining parts together by links, nails or screws and nuts, sleeves, lockers etc., ergo the weight becomes unnecessarily high. Snowshoes as such are by their own heavy in whenin use for walking, and should be as light as possible.